Improved steam-trap



t UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

. `CHARLES 1A. wHEELoox, or UXEEIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

||v| PRovED srEM-TRAP.

Speciicationformng part of Letters Patent` No. 35,555, dated June 10, 1862. i

To aZZ whom; ifi/'may concern.- 3

Be it known that I, CHARLES A. WHEELocK, a cltizenof the United States, and a resident of Uxbridge, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Steam-Trap; and I do hereby `declare the same to be fully described in the following specification and exhibited inthe accompanying drawing, which 'exhibits my invention in N longitudinal section.

The purpose of a steamtrap is to discharge condensed waterfrom ai heat-radiator when such is heated by steamlcirculating within it.

.In some respects my improved trap resembles various others in use, and particularly1 that described in the United States patent dated August 28, 1860, and numbered 29,833.

Still, however, it diliers materially from this.

In this latter trap the valve/stem is stationary relatively tothe expansionpipe, and the valve is closed by the expansion of the pipe, whereas in my improved trapthejvalve-stem is movable with thepipe While the latter may be in the act `of being expanded. Furthermore,inmy improved trap the pressure of the steanioper` ates to close `the valve upon its seat and to `keep it closed after the pipe may have expanded to a determined extent. In the other trap,(viz., tha'tshown inPatent No. 29,833) any expansion of the pipe after the valve may "have closed will tend tostrain the apparatus and to crook or bend the pipe laterally. My

`improved pipe, however, is free from these y difficulties or defects.

In the above-mentioneddrawing., A denotes the expansion-pipe, one end of'which, when the apparatusis in use, is to be fastened to a wall or any stationary body and to connect with and open into the lower part of the heat: radiator, in order that the steam `and water of the latter may freely iiow into such pipe. rIhe pipe in other respects'is free, except that it is upheld, so as tobe capable of being expanded lengthwise by the heat of the steam when in the pipe. The free endof the pi peis connected with and opens into a valve-case, B, whose i11- terior is .divided into two chambers, d e, by a partitiomu, in which a valve-opening, b, and

seat care made. e e y y The pipe A communicates with the space d,

' which is on one side of the valve-opening, and

contains the valve f. The space c on the opposte side ofthe partition a has an exhaust or discharge passage, g, leading from it.

The stem C of the valve f passes into the case B and through a stufiing-box, D, arranged on such case and with respect to the valve and its seat and stem, as shown in the drawing. The outer `end of the said stem abuis against the end of a screw, E, which is arranged with its axis in a straight line with the axis of the rod, and is screwed through a stationary stud or arm, F. Asetting-nut, G, screws on the Screw E and against the arm F.

From the above it will be seen that the valvestem() has no direct communication or connection with the screw E, which may be adjusted longitudinally with reference to l(he stem.

While the/pipe A contains steam and is free of water, itA will be expandedlengthwise by the heat of the steam. The `valve will also be closed by the direct pressure of the steam. When, however, water may form in or enter the pipe, contraction of the pipe will follow, in which casethe valve-stem will be estopped from moving with the pipe. The consequence will be that the valve-seat will be lthere will be no tendency of the expansion to crook the pipe or injurously strain on the valve and its stem.

` rThe valvevstern may have a stationary abutment, instead. of the screw or adj ustable abutment F. The latter, however, is prcferableto the former. In consequenceof. the valve-seat, orA the same and its exhaust-passage, being arranged between the valve and the stuffing-boxofthe valve-stem, there can be no leakage of steam through the stuffing-box, as ,wonld be likely to take place when the steam of the expansion-pipe can press `against the stuffingbox, as it will in the apparatus described in the aforesaid patent.

I do not claim the mechanism set forth in l tially as above setvforth; and, furthermore, in

the seid patent; but

`What I do claim as my invention or improvemeut is as follows:

My improved steam-trap as made substantiallyas hereinbefore deseribed-that is to say, not only with an abutment, E, and with the valve and stem separate from such abutment and movable with the pipe, as explained, but with the valve so arranged as to be Closed by pressure of the steam and opened by contrae tion of the pipe under circumstances substanconnection therewith my improved arrangement of the valveseat, or the same and its eX- heust-passage, relativelyto theValve-stem and its stuffing-box, Wh ereby the lutter is separated or insulated from the pressure of the steam of the expansion-pipe, as specified.

C. A.. WHEELOCK.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr. 

